Altice to offer SVoD service

Altice has launched Zive, a new SVoD platform, as well as a new fibre set-top box for the French market. The company has also announced it will accelerate the pace of its fibre build-out in both France and Portugal.

Zive will reportedly have an extensive library of 5,000 HD titles, rising to 15,000 by the end of 2016. Content – which is predominantly TV series rather than features films – will be divided into four themes, with a focus on youth and family-oriented content. Partners include Disney, Warner Bros, Europa, Miramax, Sony and France Télévision.

Altice recently acquired Cablevision in a deal worth $17.7 billion, and it now joins the largest global pay-TV players who control close to 50 per cent of the world’s subscription TV revenue, according to a report by Ampere Analysis. However, shares in the company dropped at the end of October, as the company announced lower than expected profits during the third quarter. The company had previously been growing at a seemingly unstoppable rate, with a slew of mergers and acquisitions over the past couple of years.

In France, the Altice Group has set itself new targets in terms of fibre deployment and now aims to reach 12 million homes passed by the end of 2017, 18 million homes passed by the end of 2020 and 22 million homes passed by the end of 2022.

In Portugal, the Group announced that it aims to build-out fibre to an additional three million households and businesses over the next five years, at a rate of 600,000 homes per year. This implies a new target of 5.3 million fibre homes passed by the end of 2020.